Doctrinal Basis

As a Partnership, we gather with a unity that comes from a shared conviction about the truths of the Christian faith. In particular we would want to express the following statement about what we believe:

A. The existence of one, eternal immutable God, Creator and Lord of the Universe, who in the unity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, both governs all things according to his will and is accomplishing his purposes in the world and in the church.

B. The Bible, as originally given, is the inspired, inerrant and infallible word of God. Christians must therefore submit to its supreme authority and sufficiency, both individually and corporately, in every matter of belief and conduct.

C. The inherent value of all human beings, made by God in his own likeness, and their sinfulness and guilt since the Fall. This has rendered them subject to God’s wrath and condemnation, and has resulted in their alienation from his life, suppression of his truth, and hostility to his law.

D. The Lord Jesus Christ, God’s incarnate Son, is fully God; he was born of a virgin; his humanity is real and sinless; he died on the cross, was raised bodily from death and is now reigning over heaven and earth.

E. Salvation from guilt, penalty and all other consequences of sin solely through the work of Jesus Christ – his perfect obedience, penal substitutionary death, bodily resurrection and exaltation as Lord. He alone is truly God and truly man, the only mediator between God and man. There is salvation through no other person, creed, process or power. The entirety of a sinner’s justification, from beginning to end, is only by grace alone appropriated through faith alone.

F. Before the foundation of the world God in his mercy chose a people for himself out of the human race. He did not choose them on the basis of their foreseen faith or works, but solely on the basis of his perfect desire to glorify himself in his Son by their redemption.

G. The necessity and sufficiency of the work of the Holy Spirit for the individual’s new birth and growth to maturity, and for the Church’s constant renewal in truth, wisdom, faith, holiness, love, power and mission.

H. The only holy universal church is the Body of Christ; to which all true believers belong. The Church’s calling is to worship and serve God in the world, to proclaim and defend his truth, to exhibit his character and to demonstrate the reality of his new order.

I. The personal and visible return in glory of the Lord Jesus Christ to raise the dead and bring salvation and judgement to final completion. God will fully establish his kingdom when he creates a new heaven and a new earth from which evil and evildoers, suffering and death will be excluded, and in which he will be glorified forever.